Vagrant Provisioning with Ansible

Messing around with Vagrant again, this time using Ansible to automate configuration post deployment.

Ansible is billed as an automation platform which makes it easier to deploy systems and applications. It does this through a scripting framework which supports a wide range of functionality covering deployment and configuration.

Vagrant Config

To define which Ansible playbooks should be run, the vm.provision config can be used in a Vagrantfile:

  config.vm.define "vm1" do |vm1|  
    vm1.vm.box = "centos/7"
    vm1.vm.hostname = "vm1"
    vm1.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.10.10"

    vm1.vm.provision "docker", type:"ansible" do |ansible|
      ansible.playbook = "docker-playbook.yml"
    end

    vm1.vm.provision "kubernetes", type: "ansible" do |ansible|
      ansible.playbook = "kube-playbook.yml"
    end
  end

A Simple Playbook

Ansible uses the concept of playbooks to define a set of repeatable deployment steps.

This example deploys Docker on a CentOS system (should be saved as docker-playbook.yml in same directory as the Vagrantfile):

- hosts: all
  become: yes
  tasks:
  - name: install docker dependancies
    yum:
      name: "{{ packages }}"
    vars:
      packages:
      - yum-utils
      - device-mapper-persistent-data
      - lvm2

  - name: Add Docker repo
    get_url:
      url: https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
      dest: /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
    become: yes

  - name: install docker
    yum:
      name: "{{ packages }}"
    vars:
      packages:
      - docker-ce
      - docker-ce-cli
      - containerd.io

  - name: Start Docker service
    service:
      name: docker
      state: started
      enabled: yes

  - name: Add user vagrant to docker group
    user:
      name: vagrant
      groups: docker
      append: yes

Running

Running 'vagrant up' will cause all configured provision entries to run:

$ vagrant up
 Bringing machine 'vm1' up with 'virtualbox' provider…
<snip>
 ==> vm1: Configuring and enabling network interfaces…
 ==> vm1: Rsyncing folder: /home/rich/vagrant_storm/ => /vagrant
 ==> vm1: Running provisioner: file…
 ==> vm1: Running provisioner: shell…
     vm1: Running: inline script
 ==> vm1: Running provisioner: docker (ansible)…
     vm1: Running ansible-playbook…
 PLAY [all] *
 TASK [setup] ***
 ok: [vm1]
 TASK [install docker dependancies] ***
 changed: [vm1]
 TASK [Add Docker repo] *
 changed: [vm1]
<etc...>

Provisioning Again

Provisioning can also be run independently once the VM(s) are up

vagrant provision

By naming each provision entry, it's also possible to run a specific item:

$ vagrant provision --provision-with kubernetes
 ==> vm1: Running provisioner: kubernetes (ansible)…
     vm1: Running ansible-playbook…
 PLAY [all] *
 TASK [setup] ***
 ok: [vm1]
 TASK [add Kubernetes' YUM repository] 
 ok: [vm1]
 TASK [install kubernetes] 
 ok: [vm1]
 TASK [start kubelet] ***
 changed: [vm1]
 PLAY RECAP *
 vm1                        : ok=4    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0   

Summary

Making use of Ansible along with Vagrant provides a super-fast, repeatable way to bring up a system with a defined configuration.

This will form the basis of an automation system for end-to-end testing, which future posts will build on.